Loan Process

As part of its mission, the Milwaukee Public Museum provides access to collections, for research and exhibition purposes, through loans to qualified institutions. Loans are not made to private individuals. Please notify the Registrar of the interest to borrow material.

Loans are contingent upon the workloads of multiple staff. For exhibit loans and research loans from the Anthropology and History Collections, a minimum of three months is needed to process loan requests, though more intensive loans may require six months or more. The process begins when the registrar receives a written loan application with all required information and documents (see checklist below). The borrower will be notified of loan approval or denial within 45 days of receipt of application.

For research loans from the Natural History Departments contact the Botany, Geology, or Zoology departments.

To process the loan, the following information is required:

The list of objects requested for the loan. If the borrower does not know the specific objects to request, contact the appropriate curator or the registrar for an object list or an appointment to review collections.

Formal Letter of Request on Institutional Letterhead.

For a loan for Exhibition:

Completed MPM Loan Application.

Signed MPM Exhibit Guidelines.

AAM Registrar's Committee Standard Facilities Report.

For a loan for Research (Cultural Collections):

Completed MPM Research Loan Application.

The MPM Loan Policies, MPM Exhibition Loan Application Form, MPM Cultural Collections Research Loan Application Form, and MPM Exhibit Guidelines are found on this website, at the bottom of this page. The General Facilities Report is available by order from the American Association of Museums Website.